Whether your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents came from Italy, you can't escape the Italian ways. Here are 25 signs you know you are Italian:
1. Chances are your last name ends in a vowel
2. Even if you aren't fluent in Italian, you still know every curse word there is.
3. You use hand gestures a lot. Even when you are on the phone and the person you are talking to can't see you.
4. You have a bit of a short temper.
5. If you're mainly Italian, or 100% Italian like myself, then it is pretty much guaranteed that your family is loud. Like really loud.
6. No one can cook like your grandma.
7. And if you don't eat your grandma's food, she'll be offended.
8. If you're a true Italian, you know Olive Garden is not real Italian food.
9. Your family is huge. And you don't even know half of them.
10. Growing up, you ate pasta at least 3 or more times a week, and on Sundays.
11. You thought every meal had to be eaten with a piece of bread.
12. The wooden spoon isn't just for cooking.
13. Chances are you have at least one male relative named Tony, Sal, Joe or Frank.
14. There is no such thing as one course for dinner.
15. Your parents explained the difference between Northern, Southern Italians and Sicilians.
16. You hate the Jersey Shore for its poor representation of our culture. Italian does not equal Jersey Shore.
17. You also hate it when people pronounce Italian words wrongs. It is not RICK-OTTA or MOTZ-ARELLA.
18. Pizza is one of your favorite, if not your favorite food. And nothing is better than homemade pizza from your grandma.
19. If you don't have leftovers, you didn't make enough food.
20. Your whole family knows everyone's business. There are no secrets kept in the Italian family.
21. You thought Catholic was the only religion in the world.
22. You have at least one statue or framed pictured of a saint, and definitely at least one cross in your household.
23. You don't eat meat on Christmas Eve, or most Fridays for that matter.
24. You probably drank wine before you were even a teenager, and they called it "grape juice."
25. You make it known that Italians are the best.